Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. However, we have been able to access the data held by National Records of Scotland (NRS) for the years 2010 and 2015. (Please see table attached). As at
31 March 2025, there are 2,938 GDS dentists, up c.5% over the last year and there are 3,249 primary care dentists, an increase of 4.2% over the last year.

The Scottish Education Exchange Programme (SEEP) Test and Learn Project was launched in 2023.

In year 1 the project did not directly fund any student exchanges. Institutions prioritised staff mobility projects supporting the development of sustainable partnerships.

Projects in year 2 of the test and learn provided opportunities for students from Scottish institutions who would not meet the criteria for Turing Scheme funding to participate in a mobility project.

Year 2 projects concluded on 31 March 2025. Institutions are currently submitting end of project reports which will feed into the external evaluation of the project, the report from which is due to be published late summer.

Additional information on the year 2 projects can be found on the Scottish Government website: Scottish Education Exchange Programme: - Test and Learn: funded projects - gov.scot.

Institutions are able to top up their project fund using additional funding provided by the project’s international partner. Twenty-two of the fifty-six projects funded to date planned to top up their project.

An external evaluation due to be published later in the summer will provide an analysis of the SEEP projects which will include further detail on how institutions used additional funding.

The Scottish Government does not receive any funding from external organisations or international partners for the SEEP test and learn project.

In the 2 years of SEEP Test and learn Scottish colleges and universities planned to collaborate with over 100 international partners across 38 countries. Please see a list below of countries partnered with in year one and year two.

1.Argentina

2.Australia

3.Belgium

4.Brazil

5.Canada

6.China

7.Czech Republic

8.Denmark

9.Egypt

10.Estonia

11.Finland

12.Flanders

13.France

14.Germany

15.Ghana

16.Greece

17.Hong Kong

18.India

19.Indonesia

20.Ireland

21.Japan

22.Italy

23.Lithuania

24.Malaysia

25.Nepal

26.Netherlands

27.Pakistan

28.Singapore

29.Spain

30.South Africa

31.South Korea

32.Sweden

33.Taiwan

34.UAE

35.Uruguay

36.USA

37.Valencia

38.Vietnam

The Scottish Government’s supplementary Financial Memorandum, to reflect the scaled-back care reform proposals for the Care Reform (Scotland) Bill, was published on the Health, Social Care & Sport Committee’s website on 25 March 2025.

This year Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) will commence payments to local authorities to support efficient and effective collection services for household packaging waste. There will be no reduction in the local government finance settlement as a result of extended producer responsibility for packaging payments in the first year of the scheme (2025-26). This additional funding will ensure that local authorities are supported to deliver household collection of packaging waste across Scotland.

The Circular Economy Route map commits Scottish Government to co-design the new Code of Practice to create modern, efficient, and affordable waste and recycling service standards that are deliverable. This includes ensuring the most effective approaches to implementing kerbside collection of plastic film and flexible packaging in Scotland. Individual local authority performance targets and pEPR payments will also help underpin increased collection and aggregation. The Recycling Improvement Fund has already helped two authorities to collect flexible plastic from households across their full authority area (Fife and Perth & Kinross).

The UK Plastic Packaging Tax incentivises the use of recycled plastic by taxing plastic packaging components containing less than 30% recycled plastic. From April 2027 changes to this tax will mean that pre-consumer plastic waste will not count towards this percentage, further acting as a “pull” to increase use of recycled content. The tax has increased from £210.82 per tonne in 2023 to £223.69 per tonne on April 1, 2025.

The information requested on how many vacancies currently exist in (a) radiology and (b) oncology posts can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics site at: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence (Vacancy tab).

The Task and Finish Group was established by the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland Planning and Delivery Board. In line with other Task and Finish Groups, NHS Board regional lead Chief Executives were asked to nominate regional representatives with a range of experience to sit on this Group. Therefore the Scottish Government was not directly involved in determining who should join the Group.

However, the Scottish Government expects that the Group members will engage with a range of staff in their region and other stakeholders where appropriate. Task and Finish groups may create subgroups of the main group, including inviting clinicians with specific training and/or experience, where they require specific clinical expertise or knowledge to help inform the final model.

The Scottish Government has not received any formal proposals for additional sites for additional SDCF beyond the Glasgow pilot therefore no budget is currently allocated for this.

Any future consideration on funding will be contingent on the submission of robust, locally led proposals that demonstrate strong community engagement, comply with legal and operational requirements set out by the Lord Advocate and align with national public health priorities.

The following table sets out the number of determined planning appeals in each of the last five years which have been recalled for a decision by Ministers, instead of being delegated to a reporter. These planning applications were appealed after having been refused or undetermined by the local planning authority. Information is provided on the number of recalled appeals allowed (granted) by Ministers and for comparison the number of recalled appeals dismissed (refused) by Ministers or withdrawn by the applicant.